Prologue
by JackCrimson
Summary: The prologue to something. I don't know what it will be...but this is where it starts.
1. Prologue?

Date: 13th July 2014 4:04pm

Location: Original Universe Copy #17, Milky Way Galaxy, 1 Million KM from Earth

_Silence. Complete...silence._

He opened his eyes, and he was there.

He was standing in the bridge of The Cathedral, the flagship in his armada and the largest known interstellar warship in the universe. He clasped his hands behind his back, as he concentrated.

Crew members started to appear, sitting at their stations. Suddenly brought into temporary existence from a wave of his will. They hadn't been animated yet, as he was still in the process of creation. Their faces and figures weren't important. He had created code that simply pulled physical data from people he had seen in his past life. He didn't recognize any of the people, though he knew he must have seen them on a bus one day, or they had walked by him one day in highschool. It didn't matter, he wouldn't even learn their names. They were simply living copies, created for the sole purpose of his entertainment. He ran another code, and the Cathedral was filled with staff. Pilots, Engineers, Mechanics, Scientists, Soldiers. He didn't have the time or the patience to create them, one by one, as they would all be gone in a matter of hours.

His eyes looked out past the large window at the front of the brige. Enemy spacecraft began to appear, brought into existence at the very moment he perceived them. He created a very large one in the center, the enemy's flagship. He made it large enough to rival his own flagship. The design of the two ships were very different. The Cathedral was a dull gold colour. The four massive engines at the back were cylindrical in shape, but addorned with sleek wings that extended to the right and left of the ship. The front of the ship was a masive pointed hull that had been reinforced with the strongest material in the known universe, as well as some Code.

The enemy ship was a stranger design, curved and menacing. It's hull was a midnight black, and if it wasn't for the crimson lights that snaked their way across it's exterior then it would have appeared as a large black silhouette of empty space along the backdrop of endless stars.

He began to create frigates, smaller warships, and squadron after squadron of smaller single pilot fightercraft for both sides, until an entire three hundred kilometer radius around the center point of the upcoming battle was filled with opposing ships.

He then populated the enemy ships using the same code he used to populate his own ships. The thing about the code was that it used anyone unless he made an exception. So for all he knew a living copy of his own mother was the Commander of the enemy flagship. However, it didn't matter. His real mother was back on the real Earth living her normal life in the safe confines of a reality he scarcely touched.

Then again, if he could do all of this in a matter of moments, what was reality to him?

He took a breath, and the scene erupted.

Crew members began shouting.

"Enemy far left frigate has been destroyed!"

"Second class enemy battleship is breaking through our front line!"

He grinned slightly and began barking his own orders.

"Bring our strike squadrons together on the right side, execute attack pattern delta on that battleship, aim for the engine core and bring it down!"

He looked to the crew member in charge of the 3D Battle overlay.

"Status on the enemy flagship?"

The crew member turned and addressed her commander.

"Nothing yet sir, their shields are holding steady...wait! I'm detecting a large power flux! They seem to be charging something!" She hit a button and a large display of the enemy flagship came up on the main screen.

Two large ports on the underside of the enemy flagship opened, and something appeared to be unfolding. Two massive cannons began to appear as they extended underneath the ship and locked into place. He swore he could hear a reverberating hum as the cannons began to power up, the dark red energy pooling into the main firing tubes as a crew member shouted that the Cathedral had been locked on to by the enemy flagship.

"Inferno cannons detected, we won't survive a blast from that sir!"

He nodded, he knew perfectly well they wouldn't. He came up with the cannons himself.

"Lock all missiles and gun turrets onto the enemy flagship! They can't fire their cannons if their shields are still up. Bombard it with everything we've got! Don't give them a chance to fire!"

He could hear the mechanical wirring of the great ship as everything locked on, and then fired all at once. Anything caught in between the Cathedral and the enemy flagship was obliterated in a hailstorm of laser fire and ship to ship missiles.

Bright explosions filled the sky as missile after missile collided with the enemy's shields. He knew that the second they lowered their shields to fire, they would be immediately destroyed in the relentless onslaught of weaponry currently firing on their ship.

"Sir! All enemy frigates have targeted the Cathedral! They have all just fired Ship to Ship missiles at our main turret and missile bays!"

He crossed his arms. "Our probability altering shields should hold. Brace for impact." He said calmly. The probability altering shields worked on lowering the probability of successful damage to 0%. While not physically possible by any means, none of this was.

He was almost knocked over when the missiles collided with the Cathedral, but he steadied himself and looked to a crew member.

"Were our shields even up?!" He barked.

"Yes Sir! Our shields are at 98%! We believe they used Anti-probability missiles! They completely bypassed our defences! Our missile bays and gun turrets have been destroyed!"

"Anti-probability missiles? Those clever bastards..." He said, growling. "Send my previous order to the rest of the fleet! Keep that flagship from firing! Do not relent!"

"What of us Sir?" A crew member asked.

"Divert all power to charging the NOVA Beam, we are going to hit them before they hit us."

"Th-the NOVA Sir? You really want to use that here? At this close range?" A crew member stammered.

"Yes! You heard me! Get to it! I want it charged five minutes ago!" He yelled.

He was grinning on the inside. This is what it was all about, those moments of adrenaline and excitement. When the greatest space battle in the entire history of the universe was at its peak, and no lives would be lost, before during or after.

The next five minutes were heart-pounding and intense. The countdown to the NOVA being fully charged. The rest of his fleet being picked off, one by one as the enemy began to catch on to their plan, and the sight of the enemy flagship, the two glowing red cannons like the eyes of some menacing beast ready to devour its prey.

While they had to turn off the shields to power the NOVA, the Cathedral was still armour plated, and was withstanding the barrage it was taking from the enemy fleet. However, the rumble and explosions were getting louder and more dire as time went on.

"Charge is at 95% Sir!"

He nodded. "Prepare the NOVA! Open the firing bay! Lock on to the enemy flagship!"

The front of the Cathedral opened and began to unfold. The long firing tube of the NOVA could by seen locking into position to fire.

"Enemy has brought down their shields! They are going to fire their Inferno Cannons!"

He clenched his fist. "Staus of the NOVA?" He yelled.

"99%!"

"Prepare to fire the second it hits one hundred! Everyone brace yourselves, this is going to get messy." He said, grinning as time seemed to stop.

His eyes widened as the Inferno cannons let loose a crimson flash, and the two beams of energy rocketed towards the Cathedral.

At the same moment, the crackling blue beam of the NOVA blasted from the front of the Cathedral. Unfortunately for the enemy, the NOVA was far more powerful than the Inferno cannons and the beam envelopped the crimson blast, and shot through the enemy flagship. The sheer power of the NOVA, and the shockwave that followed ripped through the enemy fleet. Anything smaller than a frigate either exploded, or shut down due to the spike in energy. This included his own forces that had been in front of the Cathedral at the time of the shot.

The enemy flagship had been completely vaporized, as well as any ships that had been nearby. They was a resounding cheer from the crew members and he closed his eyes again.

When he opened them he was in his home. A penthouse in one of the tallest buildings in the world.

He chuckled.

Everything he had just seen and done, was gone. He had created a universe solely for the purpose of that space battle. The ships, the crew, the debris, even the universe itself was gone. He was now in the first universe. The one he was born in, the one he called "reality".

He walked over to the large window, and looked down into the city. It was 7:03pm on July 13th 2014. It was raining in the city. He liked rain.

"A battle worthy of the Gods..." He said to himself.

He was correct. It was a battle fitting for the Gods, and rather covenient too, since he was one.

END OF PROLOGUE


	2. Note to the reader

I've always had a hard time deciding if I was a realist or an idealist. People always say it's easy to be the critic. To just sit on a throne of partial objectivity and wallow in cynicism, always forgetting that almost all things in this world are subjective.

Then there is idealism, or blind optimism as some would call it. But is it really blind? Ignorance is bliss certainly, but is it true ignorance? Are the idealists aware of the harsh reality of the universe and are just choosing to ignore it?

I've always had the idea of this graph in my head. A graph that compares overall intelligence and personal happiness. Now, I don't actually have any data to go off of, but I feel like it would be an upside-down bell curve. Where the absolutely stupid people are quite happy, such as very small children of the mentally challenged. Where they live in a bubble of their own ignorance, unaware of all the pain and suffering that goes on in this never-ending march of time.

Then, as the graph continues, one would see that as intelligence goes up, general happiness goes down. Most likely becoming more aware of how truly depressing our situation is. The complete knowledge of our own fragility and mortality as a species. The constant war, famine, pestilence and death that plague our various societies. The four horsemen that lead us inevitably to the apocalypse.

However, as depressing as this all seems...in my head, the imaginary data would curve. As the intelligence level rose even higher, the happiness would as well. Why might you ask? Well, I believe that it would simply be due to the realization that even with all these existential horrors that haunt our minds, we are completely powerless to do anything about it. And it's that very lack of power, the absence of control that gives us that happiness.

Why? Because if you are unable to control something, why worry about it? That famous quote that goes along the line of: "Give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the strength to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

It's that wisdom of knowing the difference that truly separates the intelligent from the pure genius. Now, all of this is total speculation. The odd twists and turns my mind takes when I am in that thought stimulating environment known as the shower is something that I usually keep to myself.

That is until...one day...I had another thought. It was a simple, surprising thought that captivated me. It had endless possibilities, and could keep me entertained for hours. Naturally I voiced this thought to my family and friends, and was surprised to see that they all had different interpretations. The only thing holding them back was the limit of their own imaginations.

Now, at this point you are being influenced by your natural human curiosity and are just dying to know what this thought was. Well, allow me to explain.

As I was mentioning before, as you are, a single human in this world populated by around seven billion others, and even as a whole race, we are quite powerless to do anything to control our fate.

Sure we have medicine, currency, technology, but in the end we could all be wiped out by a tragedy such as a large meteor striking our planet, or a horrible plague that swept over us all.

The thought that enthralled my mind, was what if someone did have that control. What if someone had control over every single thing in this universe. Essentially, a single human, like you...was suddenly gifted unlimited power. To once again, only be limited by your imagination.

What would you do?

Would you reshape the world? Give yourself super natural abilities? Become rich and famous at the snap of your fingers?

You could do anything. Literally...anything.

I will give you a moment to hopefully grasp how amazing that power would be.

Perhaps now you are imagining yourself soaring over a lake, inches from the water. Mountains and forests surrounding you as you zip along, kept in the air simply by your own thought and will.

Or perhaps you have made yourself a thousand meters tall and completely indestructible, and you are stomping through a city, destroying everything in your path, just to get a taste of what Godzilla would feel like.

The possibilities are legitimately endless.

Now, you hopefully picked up this book in hopes of reading a story.

Well, there is a story. The story I will be telling is if someone did in fact, suddenly acquire unlimited power.

So good luck dear reader, for as you continue to delve into the story, you might come to realize that if this power was possible, how would you know for certain that your own reality is what you believe it to be, and not just some alteration of the one with the ultimate power?

Sincerely,

J


End file.
